All I want for Christmas: Rage-free packaging

If you’re a parent then you know the frustration of cumbersome packaging. It is Christmas morning, your children are excited about their new toys and it is time to start opening some of them. What looks like a two-minute process turns into a 10-minute ordeal and if you’re me a cut or two from the clamshell packaging. This Fort Knox-like packaging is the reason that two of the world’s largest retailers, Walmart and Amazon.com, are asking suppliers to change the way they pack up their goods.

The terms rage-free and frustration-free are being used to describe the ideal packaging. The product can still be protected during transport and display but consumers aren’t completely frustrated by the package-opening process. Of course, using less packaging also has positive environmental benefits including using less resources as well as reducing waste.

Rage-free packaging was the topic of an article on Bloomberg.com. In the article Nadia Shouraboura, vice president of global fulfillment for Amazon.com, shares the story of one product that has frustrated customers:

“We’ve gotten e-mails from customers who’ve purchased scissors in a clamshell, which would require another pair of scissors to open the package.”

Seriously? What if you don’t already have a set of scissors? Obviously there wasn’t a lot of thought put into the packaging of that product.

If you’ve had a package lead to frustration or even rage on your part, I’d love to hear your story.